Christmas In the Countryside

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all the best for 2017!

Yes, it’s way past Christmas, and I’ve been busy – but I still wanted to show you some Christmas photos – it’s never too late, right?

What Have I Been Up To?

I’ve been doing some travel writing work, and I am excited to announce that I am also writing photography tutorials over at Photoblog.com. Two articles so far: “How to Isolate your Subject” and “Why I Rarely Use a Tripod” with another coming very soon on Details and Patterns in Travel Photography. It’s an exciting opportunity for me as it’s more published writing, and I also get to use my own photos in the articles for exposure. Photoblog have got some great photographers and writers for their recent relaunch and I have already been learning myself from their articles, so head over and take a look. I like passing on my knowledge to others and this gives me a great way to do that. In addition to that, I’ve been writing more games reviews for ComiConverse, and more photography writing on the horizon, so stay tuned!

Christmas at Home

I spent Christmas with my parents in the Scottish Borders. Sadly, there was no snow, instead Scotland was treated to a big storm which caused problems around the country. Merry Christmas, haha! We were lucky and got out for a sunny dog walk before the weather closed in, and then the next few days were miserable – that’s Scotland for you!

This was my first Christmas with my family for five years due to my travels so it was especially nice. Sadly my sister couldn’t join us, but thanks to the power of the internet we did some Skype present unwrapping with her on the day. People moan about how we are becoming anti-social thanks to technology, and of course there’s truth in that – but at times like this you can really see the benefits – where communications technology brings us closer together.

Dad always does a good job of fully decorating the house and getting a real Christmas tree, and the folks put on Christmas carols and tunes in the lead-up to the day, making everything feel really Christmassy. We do many of the usual traditions like presents under the tree, a big roast meat dinner and playing board games to make families into enemies!

My New Toy

I asked for an LED lamp for Christmas from my parents to help with my photography. These come in all shapes in sizes but I wanted one small and light enough to travel with. You can attach them to your camera or pop them down in a convenient place. You can adjust the brightness (which is astonishingly powerful) with a dial, and also slot in different coloured filters to adjust the tone of the scene. These are great, especially for portraits as you can use them to illuminate dark patches of a face or light up interiors in order to get better photos. I tested it out on my Mum, who likes to do jigsaw puzzles at Christmas. I’m hoping this LED will help me improve my portraits and inspire me to take more, one of my goals for this year. I also received my first business cards which I’d had commissioned, which I’ll show you another time.

Wrapping Up (Literally!)

When I went present shopping in Edinburgh (Scotland’s capital city, about an hour from the Borders), it was great to explore all the Christmas markets. Of course, it was also very, very busy! I’ve spent the last three Christmases in Australia and New Zealand and although they celebrate in much the same way, it’s just not the same because it’s summer there – here it was cooooold and everyone was wrapped up in many layers. There’s nothing quite like a Christmas at home! Hope you had a good holiday season where-ever you are, and I’ll sign off with this Christmas gallery for you – click on a photo to enlarge it. Until next time!

Christmas in Pokhara

The Fishtail, Pokhara

The Fishtail, Pokhara

Day 112 – Location: Kathmandu > Pokhara; Nepal

21/12/12

Me and Sophie took a tourist bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. The journey was fast and uneventful compared to last time, we passed the time sleeping and reading. It was Sophie’s first time to Pokhara. We arrived at 2pm and took a taxi to Noble Inn in Lakeside, where I had stayed the last time I was in the city. The friendly woman there eagerly welcomed us and we got a good twin room for a cheap price. I took Sophie on a tour by the lakeside and we chilled out. In the evening Sophie wasn’t feeling too good.

Sunset at Phewa Lake

Sunset at Phewa Lake

Day 113

22/12/12

Today Sophie was feeling really ill and stayed in bed whilst I went to sort out my visa. On the taxi to the visa office I saw a familiar girl walking along the street – Anja, the Swiss girl I’d travelled with a few months ago! It made sense, as she was a volunteer at her school she was also on school holidays and Pokhara is her closest city. I sent her a text message, sorted out the visa (the Pokhara staff were not impressed with Kathmandu passing the buck to them), and went back into town.

Sophie and Anja

Sophie and Anja

Sophie was still in bed so I went to meet Anja at a café where we caught up. She was enjoying her time in Besi Sahar. Although her daily routine is always the same she loves the children at the school, and her host family are great to be with. She’d been involved in all the local festivals too. Another volunteer had joined her in the house recently, but he was struggling to fit in to the rather chaotic school conditions, being an orderly sort.  His overly protective girlfriend had been angry with him for going to Nepal and had insisted on flying over to Nepal to see her, so they wouldn’t be joining us!

I spent the rest of the day chilling out. Sophie dragged herself out of bed for dinner. Pokhara was really quiet compared to the last time I was here, now we were in the low season, and freezing at night. Most of the restaurants were open to the outdoors so for the next few days we picked restaurants with open fires to stay warm!

The skies were very clear now winter was approaching, every day you could see the Annapurnas

The skies were very clear now winter was approaching, every day you could see the Annapurnas

Day 114

23/12/12

Sophie discovered she had tonsillitis! No wonder she was knocked out! We spent the day chilling out, sitting by the lakeside restaurants in the sunshine and watching the world go by. Paragliders were doing awesome stunts, somersaulting around with the whitecapped Fishtail mountain looming behind them. The weather had been very clear every day so far and so we could see the Himalayas clearly. We looked up tonsillitis on the internet and went to buy Sophie the right kind of antibiotics. Although we’d been planning and researching trekking in the north of Nepal from Pokhara, for now it would have to wait until Sophie was better. In the evening we met Anja for dinner, she and Sophie got on well and they were both happy to be able to chat in German to each other.

This dog was in bliss getting tickled by Sophie's feet!

This dog was in bliss getting tickled by Sophie’s feet!

Day 115

24/12/12

It was Christmas Eve, although with the scorching sun it didn’t feel like it! Pokhara was a bit more Christmassy than Kathmandu though – a lot of tourist places had decorations and some even played Christmas music. Sophie was starting to feel a bit better with the antibiotics. We spent the morning in a Rasta bar relaxing by the lakeside, amazed by how different Christmas was here to back home. We met Anja in the afternoon to take a boat ride on the lake, rowing around for a few hours and soaking up the views and the peace and quiet. There were a lot of Indian tourists around and some of them were taking photos of us on the boat.

Sophie loves boats

Sophie loves boats

Anja loves boats more

Anja loves boats more

Afterwards we got coffee and exchanged stories about Christmas rituals in our own countries, and we entered the Christmas spirit by singing along to the piped chirstmas tunes in the café. We met Anja again in the evening for dinner. As the 24th is Switzerland’s first Christmas day (they have it over two days) we hade a Christmas meal early with tasty apple crumble for dessert. Amazingly it was Sophie’s first time trying it and she was instantly a crumble convertee!

Tourists explore Phewa lake a pedal boat

Tourists explore Phewa lake a pedal boat

Day 116

25/12/12

Christmas day! The sun was shining brightly. Me and Anja hired some bicycles (Sophie wasn’t feeling well enough) and we rode around the lakeside, following a tarmac road which passed through villages and farmland. Kids shouted hello at us and we dodged buffalo and motorbikes.

AlanStockPhotography-1090881

We had to steer around this narky group of ox and buffalo being herded along the road

We had to steer around this narky group of ox and buffalo being herded along the road

This side of the lake was popular with the locals for picnicking. It was really nice and great to ride a bike again (the first time since I broke my shoulder biking!).  We reached the far end of the lake after an hour. Here there were a lot of flat rice paddies and a paragliding landing strip sticking out into the lake.

AlanStockPhotography-1090857

Farmers carry their rice harvest over the paddies

Farmers carry their rice harvest over the paddies

We turned around at a simple water ferry – just a raft with a rope hanging over the river which the people used to pull the raft along. Anja loves kids and used her charms on the locals to get some kid pictures. Of course I didn’t miss the photo opportunity! Back in town we still had some bike time left so I took Anja to the dam with the rope bridge.

Rope ferry

Rope ferry

Some of Anja's victims

Some of Anja’s victims

In the evening it was “my” Christmas day so I chose a place that was doing a real Christmas dinner. The turkey was boney but hey, it’s the first time I ever saw turkey on the menu in Nepal so I can’t complain! I bought us a load of chocolate and crisps to emulate Christmas at home, and drank plenty of beer. Good times!

I love Christmas!

I love Christmas!

Days 117 > 119

26/12/12 > 29/12/12

We spent the next few days chilling out by the lake with Sophie’s health gradually improving. Anja left to go back to Besi Sahar to start school. She had introduced us to a Swiss bakery in one of the guest houses where she can get her favourite bread from home. She invited a Nepali friend with us to dinner, a guy who she’d met through Swiss friends. He’d got the wrong impression though and tried to kiss her up in her hotel room – although she’d done nothing to provoke it. Western girls can get a lot of unwanted attention from Nepali guys. The society is so stringent when it comes to relationships, and the western TV they’re exposed to (such as music videos) portrays western women as being almost slutty in their eyes, so they assume all western girls are like that. Anja now tells men in her town that she’s married as she gets so much unwanted attention – that quickly gets rid of them!

Rice getting carried from the paddies

Rice getting carried from the paddies

With Sophie feeling better we looked into the trekking. With the time available to us (Sophie had to meet her mother soon), we decided to go up to the remote town of Jomsom at the top part of the Annapurna circuit, which lies in the north of Nepal close to the Tibetan border. We bought our trekking permits and one day hired kayaks and paddled around the lake.

Our hotel roof offered a good spot for photos of the Annapurnas

Our hotel roof offered a good spot for photos of the Annapurnas

AlanStockPhotography-1090837

Back to Kathmandu

A colourful food market nestled amongst the shrines of Kathmandu's backstreets

A colourful food market nestled amongst the shrines of Kathmandu’s backstreets

Days 100 > 104 – Location: Kathmandu, Nepal

10/12/12 > 14/12/12

On my last morning in Karmidanda I got up early and said my goodbyes. Jhabraj and his family had been such great hosts and I was sorry to be leaving, but after two and a half weeks I was feeling restless and my health had returned, I was ready to move on. I caught a bus from the track near the house. People piled on, nearly all of them looked of Tibetan origin. Over the next few hours we bumped our way down the valley, some hairpins were so sharp the bus had to reverse to get an attainable angle to take them. We passed through villages similar to Karmidanda and eventually reached the tarmac roads, climbing the opposite valley and stopping at a town for lunch. There were lots of stalls selling big gourd vegetables, must be the season for them. I listened to “To Kill a Mocking Bird” on my iPod to pass the time. We wound our way around the hills and arrived in Kathmandu at 1pm, by which point my bum was completely numb! I took a taxi into Thamel and checked into Hotel Potala which I’d stayed in before.

I chilled out for the rest of the day enjoying some western delights, pizza and coffee! You start to crave that stuff when you’ve not had it for months!

Statue in Kathmandu temple

Statue in Kathmandu temple

That night I heard back from the Hong Kong passport processing centre, who were dealing with my passport replacement. They needed a written note declaring why I couldn’t get a countersignature for my passport application, so I sent them a photo which did the job.

Camille, the Belgian girl I’d hung out with a month or so back, was back from a meditation course, so I met her in the evening. She took me to dinner with a big group of people she’d done the meditation course with. They were a mix of all nationalities. The 10 day meditation course at a temple near Kathmandu had been pretty hardcore. They weren’t allowed to talk to each other at all for the whole duration, they slept in dorms, had big meals and cold showers. For an hour in the morning and the evening the teacher gave them lessons about meditation. They got up at 4am every morning and after breakfast sat down for 12 hours of silent meditation with a break for lunch.

A nice courtyard restaurant me and Sophie went to breakfast daily to catch the sun

A nice courtyard restaurant me and Sophie went to breakfast daily to catch the sun

Camille found it hard to begin with, but after a few days she focused her thoughts and finished with less doubts about life and more of a life plan. Rather than try to eliminate thoughts, you are supposed to just let them come and go. She did get bored after a week though. The reactions of the others in her group were mixed, some like Camille were really happy with the course. Others never got into it and spent it feeling bored and frustrated. Some said there wasn’t enough direction or that it was too hardcore – but they did treat it as a learning experience.

Rani Pokhari, Kathmandu

Rani Pokhari, Kathmandu

After dinner we parted ways and she said we’d meet the next day to go trekking with some of the group. However the next morning she didn’t turn up so I assumed she’d gone without me.

I spent the next three days bumming around, working on the blog now I had wi-fi again, sorting out photos, and reading – popping in and out of restaurants and bars. My laptop charger broke (add it to the big list of things that have broken down!) but I managed to find a replacement on the same night in the techhy area of Kathmandu. I took a few walks around central Kathmandu to get some exercise. I was bored but stuck without my passport, I couldn’t go too far from Kathmandu and I’d already exhausted the tourist options in the area. I knew Sophie would be coming to Kathmandu soon to do some travelling in her school holidays.

Traditional potter at work at the street festival

Traditional potter at work at the street festival

Day 105

15/12/12

Sophie and Jhabraj were arriving in Kathmandu today, both in school holidays. In the morning I ran into Camille. She apologized for standing me up the other day – she’d forgotten where my hotel was!  She didn’t go trekking and had been hanging out with some Chinese friends she met at the meditation course. We arranged to meet up later to visit a casino.

I popped into a nearby shopping street where they were holding a street festival. There was live Nepali music and dancing on stage, local food and handicrafts, a small zipline over the street promoting an adventure sports company, and an abseil down the side of the buildings. I watched a bike stunt display for a while as they pulled some impressive moves for the crowd.

Ziplining above the street festival

Ziplining above the street festival

Bike stunts at the street festival

Bike stunts at the street festival

In the afternoon I met Sophie at a café and Jhabraj joined us briefly. She was staying with Jhabraj and his daughters in their flat in Kathmandu. There had been yet more drama in the village! A girl had committed suicide after failing her exams. She’d supposedly hung herself and left a note. However it was a bit suspicious as no one had examined her body until the police intervened when the funeral was taking place down at the river. We didn’t hear the verdict.

A girl spots us from a temple balcony near Durbar Square

A girl spots us from a temple balcony near Durbar Square

After dinner Sophie had some stuff to do so I met Camille, who was with her Chinese friends. We took a taxi to a casino on the outskirts of town. It was a pretty cheap establishment, though it did have free drinks, free cigarettes and a free buffet which was the reason they were visiting! They got promotional free casino chips from their hotel so they could just turn up, play some games and then tuck into the buffet. The clientele were mostly middle-aged Indian men and a few westerners. Nepalese aren’t allowed in most casinos, except the really rich ones. Aside from tucking into the buffet I bought a few pounds worth of chips and played some roulette. The only games they had were roulette and two card games I had never seen before. I ended up with about the same amount of chips as I started. Some players were on big money in comparison, putting bets of over 100 pounds onto the table. One of Camille’s Chinese friends had a system for winning one of the card games, he went to the casino almost every night and made money using his free guest house chips as the starting bid! He eats for free at the casino and pays for his accommodation with the winnings! Amazingly they haven’t kicked him out yet! Back in town I met Sophie again and we had drink before calling it a night.

Traditional song and dance at the street festival

Traditional song and dance at the street festival

Days 106 > 111

16/12/12 > 21/12/12

Me and Sophie spent the next few days hanging out in Kathmandu. She had shopping to do for Christmas presents so we toured the streets, ate breakfast and lunch in the sunshine and chilled out in the evenings. I took her to the Garden of Dreams and a tour around the Durbar Square area. Jhabraj met us for coffee one day before he went back to the village. Some of the tourist places in Kathmandu had Christmas decorations and trees by this point, but the atmosphere was very unchristmassy with glaringly bright days of sunshine. It was very cold out of the sun though, but no rain or snow appeared. I Skyped with my parents back in Scotland, they showed me the decorations at home on the webcam, though they didn’t have snow there either.

Me and Sophie in our necessary puffer jackets, next to one of Kathmandu's few christmas trees!

Me and Sophie in our necessary puffer jackets, next to one of Kathmandu’s few christmas trees!

Finally I got word from the British embassy in Kathmandu that my new passport had arrived. I went there and picked it up. I overheard the guy in front of me in the queue asking for help – he’d had a nightmare, he is living in Kathmandu with his family, and a local guy he’d met, for no reason had invaded their house, beat him unconscious and beat up his wife, his children witness to the whole thing! He’d been in court and the psycho had been sentenced to prison. My passport woes seemed a drop in the ocean compared to what this poor guy had been through.

Abseiling at the street festival

Abseiling at the street festival

Devices for thinning cotton, used when making blankets

Devices for thinning cotton, used when making blankets

 

I went to the Kathmandu visa office as they’d instructed me to when my passport arrived. They ended up charging me 180 pounds in fees for the overstay on my visa whilst my passport was gone, which I argued with them was unfair as they hadn’t let me extend the visa without my passport anyway! But as they’d let me stay in the country without a visa or passport anyway, I didn’t want to push my luck and paid up when it was clear they wouldn’t back down. I extended the new visa to allow me some time travelling with Sophie, aiming to leave Nepal in mid-January. I spent all day there waiting for them to sort it out, unfortunately they had to contact the Pokhara office where I’d extended the visa originally to get proof that I had done it, and Pokhara in classic Nepali fashion had no electricity that day! As a result they didn’t get the final stamp of approval but said I could sort it out in Pokhara.  Me and Sophie booked a bus to Pokhara for the next day.

More bike stunts at the street festival

More bike stunts at the street festival

Rickshaws waiting for customers

Rickshaws waiting for customers

Kumari mask in Kumari's restaurant, Freak Street

Kumari mask in Kumari’s restaurant, Freak Street